_Hypatia_’s Lovers, one of whom she cured of his Passion, in a very
particular Manner.
A Lady of such uncommon Merit and Accomplishments as _Hypatia_, daily
surround with a Circle of young Gentelmen, many of them distinguished by
their Fortune or Quality; besides her frequently appearing in publick
Assemblies, and receiving Visits from Persons of the first Rank, could
not possibly fail being sometimes importuned with Addresses of
Gallantry. Such Attempts the severest Virtue cannot avoid, tho’ it can
deny Incouragement, and make Success to be despaired. How many Trials of
this kind _Hypatia_ may have overcome, we are left to imagine rather
than to know, thro’ the Silence of Historians, who either thought it
below their Gravity to record such Things, or that the Works of those
who descended to Particulars are lost. One Instance however has escaped
the common Wreck of good Books; nor can I doubt but several others might
be contained in the _Life of_ Isidorus, out of which there is Reason to
believe, that _Suidas_ picked what I am going to relate. He acquaints us
therefore, that one of her own Scholars made warm Love to her, whom she
endeavoured to cure of his Passion by the precepts of Philosophy; and
that some reported she actually reclaimed him by Musick, which he
judiciously explodes; Musick having ever been deemed rather an Incentive
to Love, than an Antidote against it. But he says, with much greater
Probability, that the Spark vehemently soliciting her (not to be sure
without pleading the irresistible Power of her Beauty) at a Time when
she happened to be under an Indisposition ordinary to her Sex; she took
a Handkerchief, of which she had been making some Use on that Occasion,
and throwing it in his Face, said; _This is what you love, young Fool,
and not any Thing that is beautiful_. For the _Platonic_ Philosophers
held Goodness, Wisdom, Virtue, and such other Things, as by Reason of
their intrinsick Worth are desirable for their own Sakes, to be the only
real _Beauties_, of whose divine Symmetry, Charms, and Perfection, the
most superlative that appear in _Bodies_ are but faint Resemblances.
This is the right Notion of _Platonic Love_. Wherefore _Hypatia_’s
Procedure might very well put a Student of Philosophy at _Alexandria_ to
the Blush, and quite cure him too (which _Suidas_ assures us was the
Effect) but would never rebute a Beau in St. _James_’s Park, nor perhaps
some Batchelors of Divinity at our modern Universities.